Pachypodium

The Pachypodium (which is pronounced as pa-KEE-po-dium) means ‘with thick stem’ in Greek. This alludes to the stout trunk of the plant which is used to store water and as such, its varieties often receive common names such as ‘bottle tree’.

Description
Pachypodium are identified easily by their short, thick and prickly trunks and elongated leaves. They have bottle-shaped trunks and range from small plants such as the P. brevicaule, to the ten-metre-tall trees of P. lamerii. They have stout spines and are topped with long leaves, with flowers that are large in size and very eye-catching (although they can take around ten years to flower when grown from seeds.)

Habitat
The plant’s natural home is in Madagascar and some parts of southern Africa. However, they are great indoor plants, generally happy on sunny window sills, in greenhouses and outdoors in warm summer months. They are robust and respond quickly to their environment.

Availability
Pachypodium tends to branch and new plants can be carefully tended from these, although the different varieties of plant within the wider family mean that each has its own particular requirements and characteristics. It can also be grown from fresh seeds and these yield up to 90% of new plants. The seed pods look like cucumbers and eventually split open to reveal white-winged seeds. On mature plants, flowering will occur from spring through to early summer.

Species
There are 25 known species of pachypodium and 20 of those are found in Madagascar. It comes from the family Apocynaceae which includes a variety of flowering plants, trees and shrubs.

Care Tips
The tuberous trunk of the plant does store water. However, it does still need plenty of light, warmth and water during summer and less water in winter. Avoid over-watering it and keep the pot well drained or the tubers are likely to rot. When planting, the seeds should be soaked for around 24 hours before being sown in moist sand. Seedlings will start to sprout after four days and will germinate over six months.

Did You Know?
The leaves of the plant can be poisonous, so they should be kept away from pets and young children when grown indoors.

References
http://www.highlandsucculents.com/pachypodium.htm
http://www.cssnz.org/pachypodium-and-caudiciforms.php